- The Plate
Collards vs. Kale: Why Only One Supergreen Is a Superstar
In the midst of the kale craze, the reasons some nutritious greens get the cold shoulder may have to do with culture, race, and class.
Ira Wallace knows people think collard greens aren’t sexy.
“It’s your grandmother’s food—it’s not so exciting and classy," says Wallace, co-owner of the cooperative Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. That's why, when doing cooking demonstrations, she doesn't initially reveal that it's the ingredient of her wildly popular “Brazilian greens."
“People say, ‘What is that?’” Wallace says. To which she responds, “It’s not your mama’s collards! Don’t you love it?”
They really do.
In the era of “superfoods,” collards are hardly the only nutritious green to be largely overlooked while kale, with its celebrity fans and catchy hashtags, has reigned supreme for years, becoming shorthand for clean, healthy living. (See Who Owns Kale?)
But watercress, Chinese cabbage, and chard actually took the top
